Tips for Learners

By Ashraf Al Shafaki

Quick Tips

When attending a training course, make sure to tell the trainer the reasons behind your attending such course and what exactly you want to learn from it or what problems it should solve for you. This will make life easier for the trainer enabling him to customize the training experience and focus on your real needs.

Performing Now vs Learning for the Future

There is a trade off between performing well now yet not improving your future performance vs not performing very well now yet investing in your future performance account thus effectively boosting up your future performance.

Stay Low

You cannot put on a high profile and expect to learn anything from those around you. In order to learn, you must present a low profile.

Same as with water, knowledge travels from high elevations to low elevations. If you stay lower than those around you or act as if you were lower than them knowledge wise, you will have a chance to learn a lot from them. Conversely, if you give an air of a higher level of knowledge to those around you you will learn little or nothing at all from them.

Late Optimization

If you try to optimize to early during the learning path, you will be blocking many opportunities for expanded learning. Optimization should come as a late stage in the learning process. Optimization subdues randomization and randomization is an essential step in the early stages of a learning path as it opens many new doors for learning opportunities.

Sleep

The building of skill and knowledge is done by alternating between activity and rest. The higher the strain during practicing a skill the deeper the rest needed to digest and benefit from such practice or exposure. For instance let's say you have been in a total immersion class for learning or practicing a foreign language. Ample rest and deep sleep would be needed after such class in order to make the best use of it and build your language skills and reach you higher level of performance. Another example could be using the marathon training method to build up your skill in driving. Ample sleep after such extreme training would be essential to enable your mind and body to 'digest' and make the best use of such exercise. After each iteration of strain encapsulated in rest (or followed by rest), the mind and body build up skill and step up to a higher performance level in the field being practiced or learned. The mind and body will then be ready for another iteration to build and reach yet another higher level of performance.

Rapid Learning

Rapid learning or learning on the fast lane can be achieved by:

Tell others about what you have just learnt right after learning it, do not wait. This will shorten the learning circle and provide you with the fastest path to learn something. Share with others what you are enthusiastic about and what interests you most and grabs your attention from what you have learned.

The Learning Ring

Learning can only be complete when you close the circle by teaching others what you have lernt (through observation, reading, experimenting or from another teacher). This is called the learning ring. The learning ring is complete only when you teach what you have learned to others.